Skyrim Markarth City Guards Glitch

Just encountered a bug in Skyrim where, if you come nearby a city guard anywhere around Markarth, they would hunt you and start the dialog in which you can't pay your way out. The problem is that, even if you select to go to jail, you can't go there either and the dialog simply restarts. The only way out of the dialog is to start a fight. There's also a glitch in a glitch so sometimes you can just close the dialog by pressing Tab and guards would continue their way. However, this is not a solution in case you need to pass through a passage guarded by a couple of guards.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Sounds more like a hack but, since it resolves a bug, is not that bad. There might be other solutions with quests that set/reset status but this one was the first one I tried and it worked. The glitch is caused by helping the Forsworn during the prison break, after they get out of the mines. So, here goes the solution for the PC:

1. Travel to Markarth
2. Walk up to a city guard and begin the "You've committed crimes..." dialog
3. Do not select any dialog options
4. Hit the tilde key ( `/~ key above the tab key) to bring up the console
5. Using either the game pad or the mouse position the cursor right in the middle of the guard's head and click on his head. You should now see a hex code in the console. It is important that it is the guard's head - not his body.
6. Type paycrimegold into the console and hit enter

You'll hear the gold "cha ching" sound and the game will teleport you somewhere random in Markarth. Hit tilde again to exit the console and the glitch will now be fixed. You can interact with Markarth as per normal. This is not cheating as the bounty on your head cannot be cleared by normal means and the bounty should have been lifted at the end of the quest so you aren't breaking the game.

Source: forum

ProgressQuest

For all you gaming fans out there - sit back and relax:

http://progressquest.com/

Jagged Alliance is Back!

Jagged Alliance for PC is back! There is a new version "Jagged Alliance: Back in Action" that is supposed to come out in February 2012.

Have a look at the preview on GameSpy: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/jagged-alliance-back-in-action/1214074p1.html

Music on the Net

The Grooveshark trial got me interested to investigate what is going on with the music available on the Internet. So, here I'll list some services I run into, together with brief findings.

• Grooveshark - lots of music, HTML interface, currently on trial for copyright infringement
• Spotify - must download and install the player application, lots of music
• MixCloud (link) - techno music
• Mog - not such a wide choice of music, HTML interface, cool radio feature, limited amount of free music
• Rdio (link) - not now available in certain geographic areas (like mine) yet 

Mercer's Quality of Living Survey 2011

The latest Mercer survey of the world's best cities to live

http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving

has seen Australian cities completely removed from the top 10. Sydney has fallen to 11th place and Melbourne is way below at #18. 

As CNN noted, half the cities in the top 25 are located in Europe, with Vienna being the #1 for third year in a row.

Guitar Notes and Tabs

Here is a very useful notes/tabs-equivalent notation for interpreting notes. Quite convenient as a reference when playing music from scores (like this, for example).

Found using Google Image search. The original source is My Guitar Solo web site (link). They also have nice guitar tutorials, scales, etc.

Illuminati

Playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I have reached a point where the cause of all the chaos (in the game) is established to be the Illuminati. I knew it! :) Similar to famous quote by surrealists in former Yugoslavia - "nema bitke, nema rata bez Jasera Arafata" - there's no real conspiracy without the Illuminati.

Here's an interesting link in that regard: http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/

Sid Meier Pirates!

Here is a nice site with lots of tips and hints about Sid Meier's Pirates! 

http://www.addictedtopirates.com/

Motorcycle Ride Video - Kulla

Kulla's ride on a new Kawasaki, with a new camera:

http://contour.com/stories/olsfors-bollebygd

Nice features on the site include following the actual location on a map overlay, average speed, altitude and other GPS information.

Image and Reality about the UN

Here is a site that contains lots of interesting data about the United Nations, explaining the reality of the organization and comparing to the image most people have.

http://www.un.org/geninfo/ir/index.asp?id=160

Umlaut ASCII Codes

Here is the list of German umlauts and their correspondent ASCII codes:

ASCII Code

ALT + 132	for	ä
ALT + 142	for	Ä
ALT + 148	for	ö
ALT + 153	for	Ö
ALT + 129	for	ü
ALT + 154	for	Ü
ALT + 225	for	ß

Source:

http://www.deutsch-online-lernen.com/xengs0001ascii.htm

UN Dress Code

Useful search results for 'UN dress code' information:

• Model United Nations Handbook (link)
• Cool United Nations (link) describes the efforts to reduce carbon footprint by reducing airconditioning temperature and, hence, bringing in the casual dress code in.

The Medium Chill

Here is a nice article I just had to link to. It describes how people can be content with what they got and not only "when the big thing happens". 

http://www.grist.org/living/2011-06-28-the-medium-chill

An interesting detail is a TED video, embedded in the page, in which Dan Gilbert talks about happiness. It shows the research results data about hapiness of lottery winners and paraplegics one year after the event. The information is quite interesting and educational. Have a look.

In the comments there was an interesting link, too: http://www.newdream.org/

Rhinoceros in Werribee Zoo

Today I've paid a visit to a beautiful environment in Werribee. With a couple of friends I went to see the Werribee Open Range Zoo and the mansion with a beautiful park and rose garden nearby.

The touching story from the Zoo was about the aplha rhinoceros. Driving in the bus, doing the safari around the open ranges, looking at the wild African animals in their natural habitat, we came to a huge Rhinoceros who lives alone. The driver told us a story about the bloke. He is so big, tall and strong. Has a huge horn and is just impressive at the first sight. The driver explained how they were happy when they got him in the zoo cause they thought they would have a nice population of Rhinos from this guy. But, it proved to be a false hope. They would bring the females for mating and the Rhino would get excited but just wouldn't know what to do. There were some funny scenes, almost perverse, if there is such a thing in the animal world. The staff from the Zoo tried many different things. Almost anything from their wildest imagination, we were told, but nothing worked. The Rhino just wouldn't make it. So, they lost hope.

The Rhino now lives alone. Male Rhinos do not live with female Rhinos. They are also very territorial. So now another male Rhino can not be placed in the same lot of land with this huge young Rhino because they would clash immediately. And there's no doubt the young strang Rhino would emerge as a winner. If there were some females around, he'd fight just because it is in his genes. But once he wins a fight he is clueless as to what to do next. Now he lives alone. Looks awesomely impressive to the tourists riding in the safari bus. Yet the story has quite a sad note.

Dhammapada Audiobook

Dhammapada, available as audiobook, has been published and offered for free by LibriVox. Thanks to LibriVox for spreading the wisdom. Files can be downloaded at the link below.

http://www.archive.org/details/dhammapada_0707_librivox

Arahants

In one who
has gone the full distance,
is free from sorrow,
is fully released
in all respects, 
has abandoned all bonds:
no fever is found.

The mindful keep active,
don't delight in settling back.
They renounce every home,
every home,
like swans taking off from a lake.

Not hoarding,
having understood food,
their pasture - emptiness
& freedom without sign:
their trail,
like that of birds through space,
can't be traced. 

Email to Fax Services

Here are some Email to Fax services available in Australia:

• Faxem (link), prepaid

A time of significant events

Some say there is no coincidence. Well, whatever it is, then, this current period is marked by significant events in the lives of my friends in Australia and myself. Some of my friends are coming back from a period of living abroad. Some are getting married just this next week. Some are expecting a baby any day now.

For me, though, it is time to also step into a new phase, new territory, and new experiences. I have just received an invitation to join a team of developers in Europe, working for a large international organization. At many levels, this has a huge impact for me. It looks as if, by being engaged with them, I would be fullfilled at so many different levels. Active contribution to a better world, promotion of human rights and a world of freedom and justice, living at the heart of Europe among many medieval castles and palaces, and working at the cutting edge technologies, developing software, is simply too close to my dreams that I'm still having troubles comprehending that this is actually real. I am still scared that I will soon wake up to the sound of the clock and, instead of completing this post and celebrating within, will have to get up to a cold morning and get ready for work wondering where did that beautiful dream go. :)

Now it is, again, time to contemplate another move between continents, between different halves of the planet. Different climates, cultures, languages. Just starting to think about it makes me so excited that I can't wait to book the ticket and start packing. 

There is still more paperwork to be completed before I get further news. In the meantime, here is a photo of my new destination:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UN_City_Vienna.jpg

Davide Icke Tours Australia

David Icke (link) will be touring Australia this year in his The Lion Sleeps No More tour (link). The talk will span several hours. 

Lots of topics usually covered under "conspiracy theories" title. However, more and more of those are publicized now and those facts get accepted as natural just because nobody seems capable of doing anything about it. So, is there an effect in spreading these information? The falling tree in a forest question...

Human Resources

One more in series of sites that deal with conspiracy theories. Lots of interesting information to check out when the time is plentiful. (Hopefully that is soon)

http://www.truththeory.org/human-resources/

There is no Perfection

"There is no perfection. Just keep constantly pushing your own limits."

This is a thought that occured to me only minutes ago as I was beginning to read "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship". This seems to be an amazing book. Well, just the fact that it talks about quality seems to put it on the right track of being interesting to read. I assume that any book that talks about quality (think "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance") is a good book.

Just reading through to Introduction made me stop and think so many times. I guess the beauty of the whole Agile movement is that there *is* value and there *is* quality. It is not *all* about price and lower cost. Lower cost is a great idea but lower cost *must be within boundaries of quality*. It is not "lower cost", period. It is "lower cost for the same quality/delivery". And that is where many fail. 

One of the things that I am happy about, and that led me to the insight with which I started the post, is that we should always "keep our hands dirty". I often hear that people interview "architects" who don't code. (!!! wtf) I recently changed position from a Solutions Architect to a contract Software Developer because I was missing some "action". I wanted to do some real work because my role was being dragged towards Enterprise Architect role, being more political, away from coding and any real-world issues that software development solves. "Clean Code" book puts my feeling into words when I read 

Learning to write clean code is hard work. It requires more than just the knowledge of

principles and patterns. You must sweat over it.

This not only tells me I made a right decision but also that my senses are still doing OK. Working in environments that are not ideal is putting us to tests. It is an *opportunity*, not an obstacle, to practice what we preach. It is the way to demonstrate the best practices and continually learn how to do the best under different circumstances. Working in an ideal environment is probably not as much rewarding. Don't know, haven't worked in one yet. :)

And this also led me to conclude that there is no *best* or *perfect*. We are all little universes and there are many dimensions in which things can be evaluated/measured. The thing that works in practice is to continuously increase our boundaries and struggle to push our own limits. That is the path to quality. There is no end. It is a journey and journey is the only thing that matters.

United Nations Common System of Salaries, Allowance and Benefits

The text "United Nations Common System of Salaries, Allowance and Benefits", although potentially a bit outdated, explains lots of details regarding the topic at hand. There are numerous benefits to being an UN employee although conditions vary among posts and duty stations.

Read the article here.

Public Holidays Calendar

TimeAndDate.com has nice graphical views of the public holidays in different countries. Here is the one for Austria:

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?country=36

Internet - the magic mirror

Who, at some point, did not want to have a magic mirror from Alice in Wonderland? A mirror where one would ask a question - any question - and receive answers immediately. Come to think about it, today's Internet is just such a thing. Especially since Google replaced their Map & Reduce implementation with whatever new technology that indexes the pages in real time and spits out search results instantaneously. Just typing a question in Chrome browser will often give you results straight away.

Today's Internet, and all the technologies related to it, are in implementation of my childhood's dream of having an endless encyclopedia that has answers to all the questions. And, in practical terms, is something I wast most my time on. :) 

Thanks Google for making this happen. I really appreciate things like Earth (wish I had this when I was a kid. Wait, I still am one. OK, then), public data charts (like population chart or GDP chart), Maps, SkyMap, Android, and Gmail. Providing these technologies for free really has changed the world.

Excitement

Just when I thought it was long gone and lost somewhere, turned to ashes and what-not... A ray of light shines through. I guess it is almost epic and has been told so many times - that the opportunity strikes when you least expect it - but it is *always* interesting to experience the phenomenon. It is always different in practice but always has the same effect.

Anyway... Further development tonight.

Head-Fi

Head-Fi (http://www.head-fi.org/) is a community dedicated to head-gear (headphones, earphones and all kinds of other music-related equipment that involves a head, I guess). There's lots of news and reviews of products.

Another test of wireless headphones is available at the Choice magazine's review from year 2009.

Population Charts

More goodies from Google. Publicly available data from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. This time it is the population. The article that relates to GDP is on the Finance Blog.

Check the world population with data up to year 2009.

Here is the link to the graph of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and here is the link to the chart of population of all ex-Yugoslav republics. 

Crime and It's Impact in the Balkans

Below is the link to the study of the United Nations on Drugs and Crime in relation to the Balkans region. Contrary to popular belief in the region, the study concludes that "the Balkan region is one of the safest in Europe" and that "the levels of crime against people and property are lower than elsewhere in Europe."

Major section titles illustrate that "the Balkans do not fit the profile of a high crime region". The important fact to understand is that "the Balkans do not have a conventional crime problem" but that the real problem is organized crime and corruption.

The stability of the region after the conflict in the 1990's is an important factor that causes the declining opportunities for organized crime.

The original study is here: http://www.unodc.org/documents/Balkan_study.pdf

InfoWars

I've just read some comments on Facebook regarding the torrent of information related to Osama Bin Laden. While I'm successfully staying out of the (mis-)information zone, one link was interesting. Alas, after watching The Obama Deception movie, I never really investigated further. Just posted a few links here on the blog in order to be able to find it later and that's it.

Now, in those comments, somebody posted a link to InfoWars, the site where I recognized the author of the above-mentioned movie. Reading the articles there is a useful brain- (and mind-) stretching exercise. At a time when it is old news that it is hard to trust anyone, but it is so blatantly obvious, it is hard to recommend any opinion. However, I would always support checking out different opinions and making your own mind. This is what we ordinarily do anyway, except that it is not always so obvious.

While I haven't read any of the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, I still believe that the published material is less interesting than imagination. But I also know that life writes stories that are way more interesting than fiction.

Is there hope? It is up to you

Actor Miki Manojlovic gave an interview to Sarajevo-x media portal in relation to the new performance "Europe Today", directed by Haris Pasovic. An interesting passage is below (try online translation but beware - my first try on Google Translate gave completely wrong message by ignoring the word "no" in a sentence :)

Šta nas može probuditi iz tog polusna?

Čovek mora da shvati da ne postoji taj bog, ta sila ili spoljni svet ili bilo šta iz spoljnog sveta što će promeniti bilo šta. Čovek je taj u kome je sve, pojedinac. Dok se on ne osvesti, dok nema želju da u svojoj sredini, svojoj zgradi, svojoj ulici, gradu, državi uradi nešto dobro i da to čini na način koji nije lopovski nego je iskren i pravi. To ne spada u red budalastog i naivnog ponašanja. Drugi bi rekli "vidi budale šta radi, daj da se nešto mazne". Takvih, kvalitetnih ljudi ima, ali ih treba biti puno više. Mislim da je to suština koju ja mogu da domašim.

link to the interview 

How much Sun for vitamin D?

A question that bothered me for a while. Since I read (and posted) the link to Prevent Sickness, Increase Immunity, where the conclusion was that vitamin D, naturally produced in the body under the influence of sunlight, is the main pillar of the immune system, I kept wondering how much exposure to the sunlight is actually needed in order for the skin to start producing the vitamin D. And how much of it is needed in order to keep the immune system effective.
Well, today I was looking for the answer and found a few good ones. Here is the list:

• About.com (link)
• Cancer Council of South Australia (link)
• My Family Doctor magazine (link)

A general conclusion is that food does not contain enough vitamin D and the only way to get it is to be exposed to the Sun and let the body produce it - this we know from before. As for the time - the fact is that vitamin D gets produced by the body after a few minutes exposure (in Summer) of face, arms, and hands. The total time is about 1-2 hours a week, meaning the exposure periods range from a few minutes at a time to half an hour, spread out over several periods during the week.
A good tip from About.com:

In fact, if you live north of the 42-degrees latitude, you will have a difficult time getting enough vitamin D from the sun from November through February.

Also check an article about vitamin D helping prevent tooth decay / caries (link). 

One more news source, and "Arab Scenario" for Balkans

One more source in my collection of conspiracy-theory organizations. There are videos with interesting titles on the site.

Srpska Analitika (http://www.srpskaanalitika.com/) is an internet magazine about topics such as globalization, new world order, and so on.

Videos here: http://vimeo.com/srpskaanalitika

An awesome news article is available here (http://www.srpskaanalitika.com/2011/04/02/dzulijan-asanz-balkan-da-se-spremi-za-%E2%80%9Earapski-scenario%E2%80%9C/) and talks about the "Arab Scenario" for the Balkans countries. Bosnia above all. Apparently from the WikiLeaks founder, fellow Australian, Julian Assange.

Do things ever change? - 1870

Funny search on Google taught me that there is a nice graphical timeline of the search results. Funnily enough, one search displayed results from 1870!

Looking into the text from 1870, I found it mentions Bosnia (although the original search had nothing to do with it in the first place) and, guess what, war horrors. I have no idea which wars are described in the text but it got me skimming through. Have a look at

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TT18770425.2.28

Reading some parts really made me wonder whether the history continually repeats itself. The horrors of wars in 1870 are no different to horrors of war of 1993. Or any other year, for that matter.

Quite an educational piece. Found by pure accident.

One of Those Days

This is one of those days... "Those"? Well, this is one of those days I wish to pack my suitcases and book a ticket to go home. Resign at work, close accounts, ship stuff and get excited about the time to see friends and family again, and do an awesome job I really like, spend weekends mountain biking and hiking, motorcycling to the seaside, or skiing in the mountains. Most of these things are nearly there. A few bits and pieces missing but coming into place. Or so I certainly hope. And I also hope it does not get too late before they materialize. But that's just experience teaching me not to be too optimistic.

Today is the day when I sent birthday greetings to a few friends. Got back in touch, see where they are, what they are doing. Some contacted me on their own after a while. One message is clear - not much is changing and it is not worth spending time waiting for something. Well, for some weird reason (call me lazy or indecisive), I'm still waiting for something that would be cool and different enough to be interesting and attractive. So, maybe I give it a couple more months and see if it materializes. 

Another striking fact is that it seems that there is more software development work going on in Bosnia than in Australia. Comparing the size of population and the markets even more, the difference is significant. I guess the outsourcing has really taken off in Eastern Europe and the standard of living in Bosnia on one hand, and the standard of education on another, makes it an attractive destination for outsourcing software development. The required skills in the job advertisements are all the latest trends and technologies which is a stark contrast to Australia. Here it is mostly old-school project management, and not too many new technologies as there are lots of old systems around that require modifications and maintenance.

This is probably the most important aspect of "coming home" story. The job ads have been steady in Bosnia for a number of years now. They persisted through the largest economic crisis in the past 30 years. This should be a good sign for the future. A light in the distance. Not too far away, I guess...

Wilhelm Reich

Following through some texts about conspiracy theories (as fun as always), many extremely interesting facts and controversies emerge. While reason is of utmost importance when reading such materials, sometimes reason *is* the very thing that makes no sense.

The text on the New World Order pointed me to the book The Biggest Secret, which starts with a quote from Wilhelm Reich who died in American jail in 1957. This last bit, seemingly irrelevant, looked really interesting to me. This lead to reading about Wilhelm Reich on Wikipedia, uncovering a really interesting story about his life and research. Today his ideas seem quite ordinary but I am quite sure that in 30's, 40's, and later they were not very much so. Also, burning books by the FDA reminds me of some other cases in history when similar events occured, which does not paint a pretty picture of the FDA or any other federal agency, for that matter. Really interesting read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

The New World Order

"The New World Order, an Overview" is the text that summarizes the root-cause situation related to all modern-day conspiracy theories. Great read for anyone looking for the background information and pointers to further research.

http://www.educate-yourself.org/nwo/

Austrian Consulate in Melbourne

There is an Austrian Consulate in Melbourne.

93 Nicholson Street, Carlton VIC 3052
Postanschrift: P.O.Box 52, Fitzroy VIC 3065

Telefon

(+61/3) 9349 5999

Telefax

(+61/3) 9349 5100

 

Source: http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/foreign-ministry/service/austrian-representations-in-german.html?dv_staat=11&cHash=b20b9fe804#Melbourne

Genetic Research for Croatia

Continuing to gather scientific research material about DNA origins of the people of the Balkans area, here are the results for Croatia. Published in magazine Nature - link.

"High frequency of haplogroup I in Croatian populations and the phylogeographic pattern in its background STR diversity over Europe make Adriatic coast one likely source of the recolonization of Europe following the Last Glacial Maximum."

This points that Adriatic coast may have been the only shelter from the last Ice Age, from which the colonization spread before the migration of nations from the East.

It is also interesting to see an interview with dr. Dragan Primorac, who participated in the study mentioned in the previous posts: http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/13956/hrvati-su-geneticki-najblizi-njemcima.

Map of Human Journey

Apart from well-known Atlas of Human Journey at National Geopraphic, here is one that is easier to follow and more graphically pleasing. From Bradshaw Foundation. See here.

More on Haplogroup "I"

Here is more information on haplogroup I, specifically I2 (link), that is the most concentrated group in the region covering today's Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia.

Here you can see an overview of all haplogroups in Europe (link).

Genetic Study, continues

Here is more information about the HapMap project, mapping the genes of the world population:
In Bosnia: http://slobodnadrina.blogspot.com/2011/03/genetsko-mapiranje-bih.html
SEE: http://slobodnadrina.blogspot.com/2011/03/haplogrupe-y-dnk-zastupljene-kod-tri.html
The most significant insight from these studies is, in my opinion (in Bosnian):

"Nedavno je objavljena najnovija studija kojom je dokazano da su nosioci grupe I zapravo autohtono evropsko stanovnistvo koje se prije oko 20.000 godina tokom posljednjeg ledenog doba bjezeci pred nadiranjem leda u sjevernoj i srednjoj Evropi, u najvecem broju povuklo u Bosnu i Hercegovinu i Dalmaciju

Podgrupa I1b sa mutacijom P37,2 zapravo predstavlja vecinu postojece grupe I. Ova grupa prisutna je u BiH sa prosjecno 52,4% prema rezultatu dobivenom tokom regionalnog istrazivanja. Slijedeci najzastupljeni nosioci ove grupe su stanivnici Hrvatske sa 32,4% i Srbije sa 29,2%. Udaljavajuci se od BiH kao epicentra izvora I1b haplotipa nalazimo ga i u Sloveniji 20%, Makedoniji 34,7%, Grckoj 8,4% i Kosovu 7,9%. Van naseg regiona druge linije grupe I takoder se u znacajnoj mjeri pojavljuju u Norveskoj, na Sardiniji i oko Crnog mora."

and

"Relativno niska zastupljenost slavenskog genotipa u BiH zapravo je najvece iznanadenje ovog istrazivanja."

Original, in English:
http://vetinari.sitesled.com/bosnia.pdf

All the posts related to DNA research on Slobodna Drina blog are gathered under the same category - here. There are excellent posts and translations from relevant sources.

Bosnian History Books

Following the idea of supporting the historical writings about the region of former Yugoslavia and, specifically, geographic area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I have started assembling books available on the internet. Here are the links to material I have found are re-hosted so far. Books larger than 50MB have been compressed and split using free 7-zip, so you will need this program to unpack the books.
The books are located in my shared Bosnia directory.

• Povijest Bosne I, Muvekkit (part 1/2, part 2/2)
• Povijest Bosne II, Muvekkit (part 1/2, part 2/2)
• Bibliografija objavljenih izvora i literature o srednjovjekovnoj Bosni 1978-2000, Esad Kurtovic -  (link)
• Putopis, Evlija Celebi (part 1, part 2, part 3)
• Srednjovjekovna Bosna, Nada Klaic (link)

There is also the book I scanned years ago, "Povijest Bosne do propasti kraljevstva" by Klaic. More info here.

Some novels deserve to be included here as they give a historical perspective of the region.

• Na Drini cuprija, Ivo Andric (link)

A Response to a Video on Genetic Origins of Croats, on YouTube

This is a response to a video "PORIJEKLO HRVATA(najnovija genetička istraživanja) !" on YouTube. Since the reply box there does not allow as much text, I decided to write a response here.

I can't find any links to relevant studies that support what you state here. If we are to believe the genetic research from the past several years (that's what is said in the video) then why list so many books when you, yourself, have said that books are not to be trusted?
Also, why was it easier to assimilate to tens of thousands of words from Slavic vocabulary than to keep more than one thousand of those of German origin?
These things make no sense and I see no link to a relevant study that would support different point of view.
Another dubious statement is that all the I haplogroup in Bosnia comes from Herzegovinian Croats. In 1991 census, about 17% of Bosnian population were Croats. How is it possible that genetic studies (http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/10/1964.full) show that circa 60% of Bosnian population has I haplogroup?
I, personally, can't accept posts from public wiki where authors are "Istrazivac", "CHM8318", "Dadas", "Hu1", "Yoshamya", "Cesljugar", etc. While these people may have background knowledge, the material should have references to scientific texts, of which there is none on the linked page.
Just my $0.02 on the topic.

Competency-Based Interviews at the UN

Competency-Based Interviews at the UN - here is an article sheding some light on how to prepare for a competency-based interview at the United Nations:

http://www.unspecial.org/UNS637/t32.html

Another useful text is from WikiHow: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-a-Job-With-the-United-Nations

Or Finding a Job at the UN, or article at Career Opportunities.

For historic background information check The evolution of the UN system on Google Books.

More on Genetics - iGenea Forum

There are more studies on genetics of the people in the Balkans peninsula. Too bad I can't find the results of DNA tests on iGenea site anymore. Seems it is not available there.
However, there is a discussion at iGenea Forum - Bosnia,
and also another study - "The peopling of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina: Y-chromosome haplogroups in the three main ethnic groups" - from U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
What these results show is quite interesting. Today's nations in the Balkans region (and probably most other places on Earth) are based on religion, mostly, as well as some characteristics of societies from 19th century, like language, customs, appearance, history, etc.

Illyrian Identity

A very interesting way to look at the identity of Illyrians, below. Seems quite similar to how most nations in the Balkans area feel about themselves today.

In general, the Illyrians have tended to be recognized from a negative standpoint in that they were manifestly not Celts, Dacians or Thracians or Greek or Macedonians, their neighbours on the north, east and south respectively. (John Wilkes, The Illyrians, p3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niw6r9LB8YU

Changing Accommodation

Couple of days ago I decided to change accommodation. I thought it would be nice to move to another part of town, have some new experiences, meet some new people and places to go out. Change of routine would be quite welcome. I felt I needed to change something to be on the edge again. So I applied for a couple of ads for accommodation in different areas of Melbourne. 

However, just as with some other things, when the opportunities came close to realization I was in position to really see whether I want that or not. And, yes, I found I really have no need to move from the place I am now, in Altona. I love the surroundings here. There's not too many places for socializing but it is really quiet and peaceful for the same reason. I started appreciating the advantages this place has over anything else.

Fortunately, just before I was supposed to go check a place that looked the closest to actually hapenning, things changed and the advertiser found someone else. Instead of being disappointed, I was quite relieved and glad I don't have to move. Not to mention packaging things, updating the address, and other things that accompany moving accommodation. I guess now I feel as happy as being here as if I moved to a new place.

Mission accomplished. 

Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe

The results of a phylogenetic analysis from 2005 display the paternal gene flow among Balkans population. Shed interesting light on the origins and the relations between population.
"High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations"
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/10/1964.full

Real vs Fake Revolutions

Here is the image that portrays a difference between real and fake (democratic) revolutions:

http://giveupinternet.com/2011/02/01/real-democratic-revolution-egypt-vs-fake-democratic-revolution-iraq-pic/

Worth keeping the link to for illustration. :)

Football Practice

Someone at work organized a football (or soccer) practice. In the announcement email it sounded too official and competitive as a league was mentioned. Plus, just the word "practice" sounded like training rather than something fun. So I did not immediately respond.

After a week or two, I found out that the practice was nothing like what I thought it would be but exactly the opposite - it was exactly something I was looking for. Usually, at the practice, there would be more than ten people so two decent teams could be organized. The practice was simply - playing football for a couple of hours at a grass field in the park. The parks are well maintained and the grass is just perfect for playing games outdoors. I loved it.

The running shoes I used to play the first game broke as they were not meant for this sort of activity. Later I found a proper football shoes and now playing is a pleasure. At the first match it was raining heavily and it felt so good as it reminded me of home. Playing in the rain would be common. Except that it is usually a bit colder than in Melbourne.

These practices are now going once a week and I really enjoy it is it seems like such a good way to get some exercise without it becoming boring. We probably run more than during an average jogging session but nobody really notices it. It only becomes obvious once a person can't even walk and has to swap positions with a goalie, to get some rest.

Now, the Summer leaving seems pretty obvious in the Southern hemisphere. Wonder what the games will be like in a couple of weeks as it gets colder. Maybe track suits would be enough. After all, it does not get too cold in Melbourne but it does get dark soon so that might be an issue rather than rain and cold temperatures.

Twitter

Today I (finally) became a Twitter addict. This was one service I have not used at all until today. I failed to see how and why is it useful to read someone's posts in real-time. And I, kinda, still do.

However, while hooking up with some trance DJs, I found a world I have not seen so far. There were sites that distribute music, photos, communication, and news, all meshed together in a way. These people all used Twitter to post updates, and these other sites for media attachments to Twitter messages. So I created an account and started following them. 

What was quite important in the decision to go with Twitter, is that it is very easy to link Twitter posts to both Facebook AND Google Buzz. I have two groups of friends on those two networks and these groups are almost mutually exclusive. Now, with one post on Twitter I can post to both Facebook and Buzz at the same time, without any additional effort. In Facebook, the easiest way is to add Twitter application and allow it to post to your wall. Buzz allows linking Twitter as the source, it is that easy. There is also link to LinkedIn social network.

Another cool thing, that I still haven't found in either Facebook or Buzz, is that one can search any person's public feed. This was one of the main reasons I used blogs - they were searchable and were a sort of a diary that I could refer to both in terms of time of posting and the content inside. Now I can do the same with Twitter. So many Facebook posts fade away never to be seen again. Some of them I was looking for in order to refer friends to but could not find a way to search for them ever again. The same happened with Buzz posts. With Twitter, one can both post to other social networks *and* search the posts for those useful links and tips. 

This, in effect, will cause less posts on the blogs, I guess. Blogs are now looking like more static content holders. Something similar to web pages of the last century. I still find blog posts useful for longer text content, stories, images, and so on. Tweets could simply point to these stories with a short description.

Another cool feature is a permanent link to the tweet. Guess I'm into discovering the good side of web 2.0 where services finally talk to each other.

There are also RSS feeds with updates, replies, profile, searches. And it also works the other way around. One can link to any blog and have  Twitterfeed tweet any updates to the blog with the link to the post. Awesome! Twitterfeed also links to Facebook and a few other services. Now you can have automatic updates from your blogs all the way through to your social networks. Scary! And very practical, at the same time. :)

One thing to investigate is the usage of lists. I wonder if and how to best divide different topics/tags. I do a lot of posts for IT topics, some related to finance, some related to ordinary lifestyle issues, etc. There's probably no use of mixing these in the same stream.
Quick glance to Help section on Twitter shows that there are #hashtags that can be used to easily search for related posts on a certain topic.
Searches can also be saved for later reuse. Advanced search allows for some more complex syntax and filtering.

Lists are useful because one does not need to follow another user in order to see their tweets. Lists are a good way to categorize others' posts but not link to all of them and see the tweets on one's main page. 

Prevent Sickness, Increase Immunity

Wow, some really enlightening news in the article below. See what the real cause of the flu and cold is and how to protect.

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/prevent-sickness-increase-immunity.html

I guess this is one argument for not leaving Australia. :))

One of "those" days - Australian temperatures

Here's an awesome illustration of weather in Melbourne. Temperature drops of 20+ degrees are common. The sad thing is - it always happens when it is warm enough for swimming in the bay. :)

First World Problems

There is one awesome drawing that I often use as a reference when comparing 1st World and the rest of it. Here it is, illustrating a comparison between 1st World problems to 3rd World ones:

http://thisisindexed.com/2010/11/poor-things-2/

A Day at the Beach

Finally a hot day on a weekend. The forecast was +40 and it came close to. This was my first day spent at the beach and it and I enjoyed it very much. You can see at the chart how the temperature was rising steadily since 6am. Didn't feel that hot inside the house.

The cold wind in the afternoon sent most people home from the beach. You can see how quickly the temperature dropped back to twenties.

Vacation and Holiday Laws

Here is an interesting comparison of vacation and holiday times, as mandated by the OECD countries:

It only emphasizes that pure comparison of salaries in different countries are very far from displaying the full picture. For example, a higher salary in the US matters way less when you compare it to 30 days of paid annual leave in France. In some other countries, as well, what you get back for your tax money counts a lot. Issues like infrastructure, human rights (in Finland, people have a right to Internet access of 1Mbps) and so on can make a significant difference in the quality of life.

Also, have a look at this research into the topic, from Mercer.

Zizzle - Melbourne deals

I just received this link to a nice promotion of European beers. The site looks interesting as there might be similar deals in the future so I'm posting here for reference

http://www.zizzle.com.au/melbourne